Hello-hello...for those of you who left their comments and enjoys reading this story, I thank you! I get that this story is different and somewhat heavier than my usual stories but I really like how this story turned out and I am happy that some people appreciate it like I do. Having said that please be warned that MATURE contents are included in this chapter. Enjoy :)

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Chapter 11

"How old are you," she whispered.

I lowered my head. "One hundred forty one."

She blinked and nodded slowly. "And what about…what about what they say about some vampires drinking the blood of virgins to survive?"

I met her eyes, smiling slightly. "Living blood. Be it that of virgins or sheep. And I never kill in order to feed. I tasted of your blood — only a sip. And yet you live."

She lowered her eyes from mine. "It was a sensation I…I never…"

"I know. I felt it, too." I stroked her hair, remembering, my blood heating, my hunger growing.

"Is it always like that?"

"No. At first I didn't know why the sensations of blood sharing were so exaggerated with you. But I think I understand now."

"Then make me understand."

I nodded. "Most humans cannot become what I am, Riley. Only a select few. It's something about the blood, something different, and unique. Among my kind we call those unique ones The Chosen. We sense them, are drawn to them inexplicably and irresistibly. There is a powerful attraction between the Undead and The Chosen."

"On both sides?"

"Yes," I whispered, my fingertips stroking her cheek.

"I don't know," she whispered. "I don't know if I can bear to live a life such as you've described to me. I don't know if I can…"

"Let me show you how it can be, between us. Let me show you, Riley. Only then can you decide."

"I…" She looked up at me, afraid and yet curious, and aching for something she did not understand.

"Let me make love to you, Riley."

"I…I don't think…I want that so much. But — you won't change me?"

"I vow it to you. I will not change you."

"Lucas, I won't lie to you, I want to be with you but I don't know if I should. I don't want to hurt Charlie—."

I kissed her then. I pressed my mouth to hers and tasted her lips, slid my tongue between them to sample the moistness inside. And she gasped and was stiff and tense.

I lifted my head. "I can make it easier for you," I told her.

"How?"

"I can take the fear and the inhibitions from your mind by commanding it with my own. Would you like that, Riley?"

She blinked in surprise. "To surrender to you? My very mind?"

"Yes. Surrender to me. Your mind. Your body. Your soul." I nuzzled her neck, her shoulder, and lowered her body into the deep grasses. "Say yes, Riley. Give yourself over, just for a little while. Trust me."

"I do trust you."

"Then…" I sat up and left her lying there. I probed into her mind with the power of my own, and took what I had been asking her to give me. "You have no fear of me, Riley. You know I will never harm you. You trust me utterly."

"Yes," she whispered, and the fear and hesitation fled from her eyes, from her mind.

I lifted her shirt her breasts strained against the fabric, until I pushed it away, baring them to the night sky, to my eyes, to my touch.

I did not take control of her mind. I wanted her to give herself to me freely. But I did ease the fears and the shyness away. I soothed her, whispering to her innermost soul that she could trust me utterly. And she could, it was nothing less than the truth.

My lips traced a path over her neck and chest, to her breasts, and then I took them, suckled them deeply and hungrily, one and then the other. My lady's hands clasped my head, held me to her, arched her back, and from within her mind I knew the delicious sensations coursing through her. I knew her every thought, her every desire. When she wished my tongue to flick over her stiffening peaks, I complied. And when she wanted the pinch of my teeth, I gave it to her.

And all the while, my own desire grew. I rubbed against her outer thigh, to show her, and in a vain effort to seek release, though it only served to arouse me more. When I lifted her skirts, she began to stiffen up again.

No, my love, I whispered to her inside her mind. No, you aren't afraid. You want this. You know you do. You want my touch. Here …

And with the thoughts, I pressed my hand to her center. She whimpered and moved against me, until I parted her folds and explored within. Heat and wetness greeted me.

I wanted more than I had ever wanted before as I probed and plumbed the very depths of her, and then focused all my attention on the center of her desire, the tiny kernel of flesh that set off a thousand sensations when I pressed and squeezed and rolled it.

Her cries grew louder, unabashedly animalistic while my hand worked her center, and my mouth, her breasts. I grew rougher, hungrier, and she seemed to enjoy it all the more.

Impatient now, the bloodlust raging in me, I pulled her shirt and skirt off so that I could see all of her. Utterly naked, exposed to me. In a flash her hands flew to cover her body.

I sat up over her, staring down. "No, Riley. You are mine, body and soul. You want to give yourself over to my every desire. Don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then say it."

"I am yours," she moaned. "And you are mine, Lucas."

I stripped away my clothes in a frenzy of desire, and then I lay atop her, my hands pressing her thighs apart as I lowered myself to her center, and without hesitation, slid inside.

She gasped, her nails digging into my shoulders and her thighs going taut.

"Open to me," I whispered.

And she did; she opened wide and I sank myself inside her to the very depths of her, like burying myself in a sweet haven from which I never wished to emerge. I pulled back and drove again as she moaned in sensation.

With my hand I tipped her head to one side, and pushed the hair away from the skin of her neck, baring it, and watching the tiny pulse beat just beneath the flesh as I took her body and lowered my head to take her blood, as well.

I sank my teeth into her throat and she screamed and I knew it wasn't in pain, but in the most exquisite pleasure she had ever known.

The orgasm rocked her body as I fed, and it was echoed in my own until I forced myself to release her neck, to ease my body down beside hers. I held her gently in my arms until the waves of pleasure subsided. It was, I knew, beyond ordinary release. Beyond even, preternatural sensation. Beyond anything I had ever known, and certainly far beyond anything she had ever imagined.

Breathless, she whispered, "I never knew it was…it would be like…"

"It's not. Or not with anyone else, Riley. It never has been."

She looked up, surprised. "Really?"

"I'm as stunned by it as you are," I told her. "Though, perhaps, not surprised. I've been told that sharing blood with one of The Chosen can be overpowering."

She snuggled closer into my arms. "It was. And wonderful. But —"

"But?" I felt the cold finger of panic touch my heart. To me, in my mind, that act of lovemaking, of blood sharing, had bound this woman to me. I thought I had claimed her as my own, and she had claimed me as hers. It hadn't occurred to me that she might feel differently. "You still have doubts?"

"I…" She seemed to search for words. "Making love to you is heaven. Beyond heaven. But it tells me nothing of living as…as you must live. Nothing of being…what you are."

I lowered my head, my heart sinking. "I thought it would be enough."

Her palm cupped my face. "It may very well be, Lucas. But I have issues of my own. I still don't know who I am and there's also Charlie. Can you not give me time to know more? After all, it's more than the decision of a lifetime. It's a decision for all time."

"What can you learn in time that you don't already know?"

"Who I am."

I was impatient, angry, perhaps, but unsure why. I suppose I wanted her unabashed acceptance, rather than something so noncommittal.

"Lucas," she said softly. "You told me that once I knew your secrets, I would be bound to you for all my days. Be they many or be they few. I have no desire to change that. I want to be with you, from this day forward. That I know. My only uncertainty lies not with you, but with myself. I need to know who I am. I want to know if I have a family other than Charlie. What if they are looking for me? And for that I need more time." She brushed her lips over mine. "Do you understand my feelings?"

I swallowed. "I do, but I don't like the notion of waiting and this other man. I saw the way he looks at you. He wants you Riley. Anything could happen. As long as you remain mortal, you cling to the fragile lifetime of a mortal. The smallest accident or illness could take you from me before I could do a thing to prevent it. By the Gods, woman, I waited over a hundred years for you."

"I understand — and I'm not ill. Not with any illness, at least."

I sighed, pulling her tightly into my arms. "I don't think I can let you go, Riley."

"Give me a few days, Lucas. Enough to at least become used to this idea. Enough to…to adjust, to understand and accept. Please?"

I stared at her for a long moment, at the genuine feeling in her eyes. And at last I said, "Yes. I will give you the time you ask for, if you will give me something in return."

"Anything," she whispered, and blushing added, "though I believe I've already given you all that I have of value."

"What you've given me is priceless. What I ask is even more so. Give me your hand, Riley. Be my bride. Marry me. Tonight."